Baseball Commit: Adam Robinson

Adam is a very gritty player with great speed and some pop in his bat […] He is a very competitive athlete and we are excited to have him join our family and compete with us.

That's Michigan coach Rich Maloney informing us of a new baseball recruit, Adam Robinson; let the never ending comparisons to David Eckstein begin. GRRIIIITTT.

Jokes aside, Robinson, a left fielder and leadoff hitter for Glenbrook North in GlenNorthbrook, IL is a very solid pick up for the Wolverines. He's entering his 3rd year on the varsity team on a very good program in the state of Illinois. Last season, his team made it all the way to the 4A Regional Championship.

A top-level athlete, Robinson is clearly one of the quickest prospects in the Class of 2010. Physically strong and compact, Robinson ran an event-best 6.76 60 and a 4.32 home-to-first time from the right side. At the plate, Robinson has gap-to-gap power, extremely quick hands and a compact swing. His athleticism translates well in the outfield as well, as he moves fluidly and takes excellent routs to the baseball.

Adam has approximately 40 steals in two seasons, which translates to about 1 per game. That's more impressive than it sounds. That speed and athleticism have him as a two sport athlete as he also is the starting running back for the football team, pictured below.

"We've had 25 kids get drafted over the past six years, and we pride ourselves on giving kids an opportunity to play at the next level," said Top Tier 17-U American coach Todd Fine. "But from a team standpoint, the CABA World Series title was the biggest win in the history of the program."

That sounds promising. As far as early playing time, I don't think Robinson makes the starting lineup too quickly. We'll first have to see how much longer Ryan LaMarre is still on campus before we can start projecting the outfield two years down the road.

This makes 5 in the recruiting class already for Coach Maloney. I reviewed the other four early signings previously. The class has two outfielders, so I doubt we see too many more. By the time we get the full list of enrollees, I imagine we'll see a couple more pitchers and another corner infielder.